Greek political smackdown on live TV as extreme right figure punches female rival

A Greek politician is being hunted by police after the country's election campaign turned into an ugly brawl on live TV.

The spokesman of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party, after trading insults of "commie" and "fascist" with two left-wing politicians, lunged at the women, smacking one three times across the face and throwing a glass of water at another.

The violent display a week and a half before crucial elections has stunned Greeks as they seek to avoid a catastrophic exit from Europe's common euro currency.

A prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Ilias Kasidiaris, whose party alarmed Europe by gaining 21 of parliament's 300 seats in Greece's inconclusive May 6 elections.

Ilias Kasidiaris poses for a photo at the at the headquarters of the extreme far-right Golden Dawn party, which alarmed Europe by gaining 21 of 300 seats in Greece's inconclusive May 6 elections. Photo: AP

Golden Dawn, which vehemently denies the neo-Nazi label, has been accused of violent attacks against immigrants in Athens.

The party denies involvement in the attacks, insisting it is a nationalist patriotic group.

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It campaigned on a platform of ridding the country of illegal immigrants and cleaning up crime-ridden neighbourhoods, and advocates planting anti-personnel mines along Greece's borders to stop migrants from sneaking across.

The attack "put on public display what was widely known", said the radical left-wing Syriza party, whose member Rena Dourou was splashed with water on the show. "The true face of this criminal organisation."

Tempers frayed on the daily morning political show on the private Antenna station during a political debate, to which representatives of all seven parties that won parliamentary seats on May 6 had been invited.

Discussion went off on a tangent about political history in Greece, which suffered a vicious civil war between Communists and the right-wing after World War II, and a seven-year military dictatorship that ended in 1974.

Kasidiaris shot an insult of "you old Commie" at 58-year-old prominent Communist Party member Liana Kanelli, after she called him a "fascist".

Kasidiaris, 31, also took offence at a reference by Dourou to a court case pending against him.

It all careened into violence when Dourou said there was a "crisis of democracy when people who will take the country back 500 years have got into the Greek parliament".

Kasidiaris bounded out of his seat and hurled a glass of water at her, shouting an insult: "You circus act."

Talk show host Giorgos Papadakis ran over to Kasidiaris, attempting to calm him down. But he turned on Kanelli, who appeared to throw a newspaper at him.

Kasidiaris hit Kanelli three times - with hard right-left-right slaps to the sides of her head.

Papadakis tried and failed to restrain him.

The channel cut to a commercial break, and returned five minutes later without Kasidiaris.

'It's darkness and its black' - Greek politician Liana Kanelli rails against the extremist right-wing Golden Dawn party, after being struck by one of its members on live television.

Papadakis and Kanelli later said attempts had been made to restrain Kasidiaris after the scuffle by shutting him in a room in the TV channel's building, but he broke through the door and left.

Police were searching for him to serve the arrest warrant, which under Greek law must be carried out within 48 hours.

If he is not arrested within the time limit, the case is dealt with under ordinary court procedures, with a court case being scheduled.